Grand Jury exonerates officers in shooting incident

MONTICELLO, NY — A Sullivan County Grand Jury returned a No True Bill regarding their investigation into the shooting incident on December 9, 2006, which resulted in the death of Lester J. Devens of 337 Van Tuyl Road, in the Town of Lumberland. A No True Bill determination means that they found the shooting justified under law.

On the evening in question, Town of Lumberland constables John J. Cuomo and Vincent Czubak went to the Devens residence as the result of a 911 call made by Lester Devens’s wife, Klopchin. The officers found Lester in the basement, highly intoxicated, and apparently both violent and suicidal.

Devens came up the stairs after the officers had tried to coax him up for 10 to 15 minutes, holding a 10-inch carving knife behind his back, making statements to the effect that he was going to die tonight and the officers were going to have to kill him. The shooting occurred after he had been pepper-sprayed twice, and twice tried to attack the officers with the knife.

Devens blood alcohol level was .25, more than three times the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle. Additionally, a drug screen revealed the presence of cocaine and its metabolites in his blood.

The autopsy revealed that Devens had a self inflicted wound to the neck, judged the probable result of an attempt to cut his own throat with the knife.

Historic inn condemned in Pennsylvania

MILFORD, PA — The Tom Quick Inn, a historic structure built in 1882, has been condemned as “Dangerous and Unsafe” by the building department.

The three-story hotel is the largest hotel in Milford, consisting of two separate structures, the Terwilliger House and the Center Square House, that had been connected by a former owner, Robert Phillips.

Councilman Bill Kiger said that the building’s condition is due in part to a failure in management. The hotel owner, Abraham Wohl, has not yet commented on the situation, and the hotel’s future is uncertain.

Pike County municipalities get sewage grants

MARSHALLS CREEK, PA — State Rep. John Siptroth announced today that Hamilton Township in Monroe County and Lehman Township in Pike County have been selected to receive grants under the state’s Sewage Facilities Enforcement Grants Program.

Hamilton Township will be awarded $15,102 and Lehman Township is receiving $7,330. Siptroth, who represents a portion of each county, said the municipalities will use the awards to reimburse 50 percent of eligible expenses for performing sewage enforcement measures as required by law. The state Department of Environmental Protection administers the grant program.

Info sought on Port Jervis robbery

PORT JERVIS, NY — A Family Dollar store on Jersey Avenue was robbed of about $1,000 in cash on Sunday, December 31. The robbery occurred at about 2:15 p.m., when three armed men entered the store and forced an employee to hand over the cash. The men were described as being in their late teens or early 20s, and may have left the scene in a white Honda Prelude.

No one was injured during the event.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Port Jervis police at 845/856-5101.

Local farm delegates see proposals adopted

HERSHEY, PA — Wayne/Pike County Farm Bureau delegates saw all 13 of the policy proposals they developed adopted at the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s 56th Annual Meeting at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center on November 13-15.

Among the policy recommendations put forward by the local farm bureau are mandatory country of origin labeling for all agricultural products entering the United States; cooperation between the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and others to support programs that lessen the impacts of gypsy moths, southern pine bark beetle, eastern tent caterpillar, webworms and any other species that severely defoliate native forests; and supporting legislation that would establish a state commission to assess the environmental benefits and burdens resulting from biosolids (sewage sludge) application, and make recommendations on the manner in which they should and should not be used. The human-waste based material has nutrient value but it also contains heavy metals which accumulate in the soil after multiple applications and are a danger to human health, water and the environment.

Defection tilts power back to house Republicans

HARRISBURG, PA — Although the Democrats finally squeaked out a 102-101 majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the November 7 elections, Republicans won part of that power back when Republican Dennis O’Brien was elected speaker of the house on Tuesday. The Democratic caucus was fractured by Rep. Thomas Caltagirone’s announcement over the weekend that he planned to vote for incumbent speaker, Republican John Perzel, saying the Democratic party has “operated the caucus as a personal fiefdom, promoting their own personal and political ambitions behind a wall of secrecy and petty personal vindictiveness.”

The election of O'Brien rather than Perzel came as a last-minute surprise, but the fact that he was nominated by Democrat Bill DeWeese suggests that he is an acceptable compromise to at least some Democrats. O'Brien has agreed to push for rule changes to divide legislative committees and chairmanships equally between parties. But the fact that he is speaker still gives Republicans the upper hand, as he has the power to set the agenda and move bills into committees.